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Thursday 28 November 2013

Is Xbox targeting sexist jocks?

It should be an absolutely fantastic week for Xbox. On the verge of Christmas and having recently released its most recent iteration of a gaming console Microsoft should be sitting back and reaping in the benefits of an extensive marketing campaign.


What a shame it therefore is that Xbox has instead fell victim to a heated sexism debate.  Having recently released a letter to the other half to justify the purchase of an Xbox Microsoft made one crucial tiny little error- They assumed the only people buying the console were men!


It is of course a shortsighted and immature mistake for the company to make. We live in a world where gamification is wide reaching across the sexes. These types of faux pas highlight the changing trends and important issues companies need to be aware of. Relying on old pre conceived ideas and/or stereotypes to shape creative messages simply won’t work in this day in age.  For a company the size of Microsoft it shouldn’t be new news that they have such a massive female base that would have potentially of taken offence to this messaging.


Pay attention and listen to your audience. If you do that you won’t find yourself making any embarrassing changes to marketing campaigns. In the case of Xbox once again the tweets and buzz of the social networks have prompted action from the games console giant.



Not a great result for Xbox but one it will no doubt recover from. The question is will they learn this crucial oversight?

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